Ezra’s Cry for Wisdom

Ezra’s Cry for Wisdom

Ezra chapter 8, and I want us to begin the reading in verse number 15 there. Ezra chapter 8, verse number 15. Ezra says, And I gathered them together. Who's the them? This is the heads of the households with their families that had come out, who were leaving Babylon, the captivity, going back to Jerusalem. With Ezra in this second deportation, or second return, I should say, from exile. And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava, and there abode we in tents three days. And I viewed the people and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi.

Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jereb, and for Elnathan, I'm sorry, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshulam, chief men, also for Joreb, and for Elnathan, men of understanding. There must have been some good men named Elnathan, right? Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha.

And I sent them with the commandment unto Iddo, the chief at the place Kasaphia. And I told them what they should do unto Iddo and to his brethren, the Nethanims, at the place Kasaphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. And by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding. And of the sons of Mali. And of the sons of Levi, the son of Israel, and Sherebiah, with his sons, and his brethren, eighteen. And Hashabiah, and with him, Jeshiah, of the sons of Merari, his brethren, and their sons, twenty. And also of the Nethanims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethanims. All of them were expressed by name.

Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy, because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him, but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was entreated of us. Let's conclude the reading there in verse number 23 this evening.

So, there were three deportations of leading up to and culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. There were three deportations to Babylon. There will be three returns from Babylon, the first of which would be under Zerubbabel. You remember that name. He was the one who was, along with Joshua the high priest, wasn't he the one that rebuilt? He built the temple, though it was much smaller than it was in the days of Solomon. Of course, it had been destroyed in 586. But, that return from captivity happened in 538, and it was not until 515 B.C., or I think it was about that time frame, that the temple was completed. The Zerubbabel temple, we often refer to it as a smaller temple. There had been a few that remembered the glory of the former temple, and they were, I guess, somewhat disappointed, we might say, with the smallness of it. And yet, the Lord is even in small things. It doesn't necessarily matter the size of it.

But here, we're talking about approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately, approximately. What, 50 plus years later now, that Ezra is going, God is laying it upon his heart to go back to Jerusalem. And for a distinct purpose from that of rebuilding the temple, the temple had already been rebuilt now. It had been rebuilt for decades. But he returns in 458, we understand, and he is, He is, Ezra is a priest and a scribe. If you look over in Ezra chapter 7 with me, let's look over in Ezra chapter 7. Let's look in verse 6 beginning. It says there, Then this Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given.

And the king granted him all his requests according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. And there went up some of the children of Israel and of the priests and the Levites and the singers and the porters and the Nethanims unto Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king, for upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

So Ezra, his genealogy, if we look back at the beginning of the seventh chapter, stretches back to Artaxerxes, he's a descendant of Aaron. We certainly notice other priests in that line when we look back through his lineage in the first part of chapter seven. But it says that his father was Sariah. Sariah. Look in verse number one. It starts with that which was closest to him. It says, Now after these things in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra the son of Sariah, and then it talks about Azariah. We recognize Hilkiah, the priest, Zadok, all of these. He's in the priestly line, isn't he? And we notice, though, that his father's Sariah. Well, that name pops up in another place, a couple other places, too. In Jeremiah chapter 52, if you look over there. Jeremiah 52.

I'm just going to look at this particular reference to him. In Jeremiah 52 and verse 24, it's there. In Jeremiah 52, verse 24, that we read, And the captain of the guard took, that is, Nebuchadnezzar Aden is the captain of the guard, but he took, as it says here, Sariah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the door. He took also out of the city a eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war, and seven men of them that were near the king's person, which were found. In the city. And it says, And the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the midst of the city. So Nebuchadnezzar Aden, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon, to Riblah.

And the king of Babylon smote them and put them to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land. So this is the final, 586, this is the final destruction, final deportation. This is it. And ultimately, if we are to understand that this was his immediate father, if Sariah was the immediate father, which it seems to be because we know one came from the other. Sometimes in Scripture you can read something like, the son of somebody, but it may not be necessarily the way the Hebrew is. It may not be the immediate son, it might be the grandson. He's one of the sons, the offspring. You know, we talk about our forefathers, right? Our fathers, even in the Old Testament, they refer to fathers, but they were not their immediate father.

It was the forefathers, the one who went before. But, if there were those that remembered the Solomonic temple, that made it under Zerubbabel, it would not necessarily be a great stretch to think that, well, maybe, maybe Ezra was a baby when his father was killed. Very likely, very possible that he was just an infant or a young one when his father was killed. And yet, he lived, perhaps, throughout this captivity, and now, I'm not saying this is the end, I'm not saying this dogmatically and definitively, but he could have been every bit of 128 plus years old now. This is just conjecture. I'm not, you know, we're not going to put this in stone. But, that would be interesting if he was that age. If he was that age.

And now, he prepared his heart. What do we read here in the text? We read in verse 10 in chapter 7, that he had prepared his heart, to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. Not everybody can do everything. Nobody can do everything. It was not God's calling upon him to rebuild the temple. It was not, that was not even what God in his will had equipped, evidently, had not equipped this Ezra to do. But God had prepared Zerubbabel to do it. Zerubbabel to do this. I think about these children, and all the different personalities, the different interests, the different abilities that God gives, that God gives to each individual. And God has a specific will, and he wants us to make it, make us wise to understand what is his will for me, and for you. He wants each person to know, and then to have understanding, what is the will that God has for me. Maybe we don't see the whole, we won't see the whole plan at once, but we can see how God is leading us. And when God is putting a burden on your heart to do something, you don't need to sit still. You don't need to say, well, I'll just stay here. Go on.

No, I need to listen to what it is that God's laying a burden on my heart to do. And even if I'm up here, up in age, God may, God still has a purpose for me. God has a purpose and a plan. Yet, in my life, certainly nobody here is going to live to be, well, unless a miracle of God, nobody here is going to live to be 600 years old like Noah was. But I thought, when I saw the ark recently, this man must have been highly intelligent after 600 years. Unless he was just sitting around twiddling his thumbs for several centuries, he learned a lot of stuff. He knew a lot about life. And yet, as God directed and used those abilities and that knowledge that he had accrued over the years, and he used it and was moved by the fear of the Lord to use all that for God, what a blessing. I mean, it would have had to have taken a skilled individual to do that. Not just anybody could have built an ark like that. God prepared Noah to do it. Here we have Ezra. God had been preparing him and Ezra had been preparing his heart, as it says here, to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. And to teach it. To do it and to teach it. That's a good pattern, isn't it? Not just to teach it, but to do it and to teach it.

The problem that caused Israel to get into the captivity in Babylon to begin with and God to bring destruction to Judah and Jerusalem was that one of the grievances that Jeremiah brought out was that the priests, they're not teaching the difference between the clean and the unclean. The people don't know their right hand from their left. There's confusion in the land. People doing whatever was right in their own eyes. There was a general disdain for the people. Disdain for the prophets. And people would rather have the false prophets talk to them than the true prophets of the Lord. And now there is this burning desire evidently in Ezra's heart. We've got to get back and we've got to teach the law of the Lord. And we've got to do it. We've got to get back. Yeah, the temple, the structure is there, but we've got to see not only a restoration of the building, but of the worship of the Lord. I thank God for those that, you know, maybe, maybe they say we're just in a, we're in a wasteland as far as a good church.

And they might have to meet in their home or maybe there's a couple families. There's three families and they get together and, you know, none of them are called to be a preacher of the gospel, but they get together and they study God's word together and they do the best they can with what they have and then maybe God sends a preacher along, right? He sends one who's called. That's not to diminish what they were doing before, but now Ezra is, he's of the line that God has appointed to do this very thing and God has moved upon his heart. You've got to get back to Jerusalem. You've got to go back and teach the law of the Lord. You've got to, you've got to establish this worship. And so we see that he does. And as he's doing that, as he is beginning to move out with other families, with other heads of households that are going with him and they've cast in their lot, we're going to go back with you, we're going to go back with you. Well, they get out of Babylon and it, it says that they came to this river, right?

There was a river by the name of, a Hava that they had come to. And the consensus is that this was a tributary waterway that came off of, or that came from, or maybe even actually ran into the Euphrates, I should say, that was connected to the Euphrates River. It was not the Euphrates, but it was a tributary of the Euphrates. And so they, so they were not very far from Babylon when they came to this place, but it's very likely this was a flat, open area along the banks of the Hava River, this waterway, where they were able to spread out a bit. They were able to spread out and they stopped there, as we already read, and it says, that I gathered them together to the river that runneth to a Hava, and there we abode in tents three days, and I viewed the people and priests. So he's kind of taking a head count, if we can say that. And he's looking over, all right, who all do we have here? And as he begins to observe, he realizes none of the Levites are here. None of the Levites are with us. Where are they?

And so it's going to be kind of hard, it's going to be kind of hard to do what God has laid upon my heart to do if we do not have the Levites with us. And so God, in so many words here, He gives Ezra the wisdom to seek out men of understanding among the group. There's something to be said for not trying to do it all yourself. But to seek out these other men. We know we need counsel. We need to be able to recognize others who are thinking scripturally, right? Others who are thinking, right, and consult with them and speak with them as he does here. And it says that as he sent for them, well, I sent for Eliezer, for Ariel, and he mentions all these men of understanding. And I sent them, I sent them with commandment, these men of understanding. He gave them a mission. Now, I want you to go and do this, men of understanding. I want you to go unto Iddo, the chief at the place of Cassaphia. And I told them what they should say unto Iddo and to his brethren, the Nethanemes, at the place of Cassaphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of God.

When God puts a burning desire on your heart and he begins to make you wise, what does the Lord want me to do? Then he's going to make provision for that to happen. It may take longer than we thought, but it's going to be the case. And now we see that Ezra knows we can't move on with this until God provides ministers for the house. We need Levites to minister in the house when we get there. And so he's trusting God to provide them, and he does provide them. They do. Why didn't they come initially? I don't know. Have they come too comfortable in Babylon? Some might suggest that could be the case. Well, whatever it was, these men of understanding went with words sent. They were sent to say by Ezra, maybe unfolding, whatever it was, whatever he said was the burden on his heart and why they needed to come. And they also evidently shared that vision, and they came. And they came. Because this was not going to be an easy journey. It was a dangerous journey, in fact.

In fact, we read here that, what was it, in chapter 7, verse… No, no, it was in chapter 8, I'm sorry. In chapter 8, in verse number 22, he says, I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because I had already, we had spoken unto the king and just made this declarative statement. Had already said in the presence of the king, the hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him. Had already told the king that his power and his wrath is against all that forsake him. I had already declared that God is able to help us. And so, at that point, I did not want it to seem that I was relying on man instead of God to help us. And so, the Lord did help them, and the Lord did protect them in the way. Well, they were carrying silver, gold. They were carrying vessels to bring to the house of God. Talk about a treacherous journey. And yet, the world was with them. The Lord helped them.

God will not put something on our heart. God will not lead us in a direction that he will not also give us the means with which to do whatever he's placed on our heart to do. It may even be in a situation like, what was it, the brother and his family that went over, was it Cameroon, I believe, and he was shot and killed. And yet, that was not a, that did not mean that God did not call him to go over there, but how many times in history have we seen, and I think his wife pointed out, I'm trying to remember the brother's name right this moment, but his wife said how many young people have accepted the call to the mission field as a result, as a result of the testimony of her husband and how God used that. And so it's not in vain. It's not in vain when God calls upon it.

Just, just mark it down that whenever God gives us wisdom of this is what I want you to do, now do it, there will be delays, there will be obstructions, there will be difficulties, there will be challenges. Of course, there always are. But remember that God is the one who already knows about these things. He already knows they're going to happen. And all he wants us to do is what we said this morning. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But we see now, Ezra, Ezra knows this is a dangerous journey. The Lord is providing the Levites to come, and now there's another danger. We've got to make the journey. We've got to get there. We've got to get there.

Well, it says here in verse 21, Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance. And that's where he says, For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was, look at this phrase, he was entreated of us. I sought the Lord, I besought our God for this, and he was entreated of us. So they fasted, prayed, and the Lord heard and answered. And so he delivered them. What does it say in verse 31? And the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. And we came to Jerusalem and abode there three days. Amen.

We have so many blessings that we need to count, don't we? We have so many things to be thankful for. We have so many mercies of God to recount. Look at how many things he's already brought us through. Look at how many things he's already helped us with, and he will continue. We need, like David said this morning, be merciful to me as you used to do to the saints of old, or something to that effect. I can't remember the exact wording, but as you've done in the past, do it again, Lord. Do it again. And there's that anticipation. There's that anticipation that God will do what he says, his promise to do. If he's given us the direction to do something, he will make the provision for it. He will provide.

So Ezra proclaims this fast, and the Lord was entreated as they prayed. He was entreated of them. He heard their cry. He answered their prayer. And they went out in confidence that the Lord was with them, that the Lord was with them. Well, as these priests, these Nethanemes, Ezra, and all these families go out, we see that God has a plan for them. You know, it's been said so many times before that we are immortal until God is done with us. We shouldn't be cocky. We shouldn't be nobody can touch me kind of thing. No, we should be meek and lowly before the Lord. But as long as God wants us, wants us to be here, he has a plan for us, and he's going to make provision for it. I meant to say, I was thinking through wisdom this morning, and I didn't actually share the things I wrote down about it. But God will provide. God will provide the wisdom we need. Wisdom is the God-given ability to apply truth to the situation at hand.

Wisdom will enable me to rightly understand the circumstances at hand so that I can think, I can speak and act in a way that will glorify God and a way that will be good for all involved. Ezra knew that the Lord had put this burden on his heart to go back. It's like Esther. She could have held her peace, but the Lord could have put her on a shelf and raised up deliverance from another place. There is a need at some point where the Lord is moving on your heart to do something, to say something, to accomplish something. There must be a resolve in your heart. Like Ezra said, he prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, to do it, and to teach it. There must be that resolve. Like Daniel said, that he purposed in his heart. Not to defile himself with the king's meat. He purposed in his heart to honor and glorify God. Then you must step out in God's wisdom and just trust Him. Once He shows the way, just do it and He will provide.

Well, the need of wisdom is crucial because if we don't get wisdom and then we don't act on the wisdom that we get, then we'll end up doing that which is dishonoring to the Lord. That's more dangerous than, far more dangerous than doing what God's wisdom tells us to do, right? That's the safest place to be is to know what God wants us to do and then to do it. But Ezra knew that this fast was not some kind of show they were doing. This was a genuine humbling before God. Lord, where else are we going to turn but to You? Lord, we don't know how it's going to happen but we're trusting You. And that fasting showed the posture of their heart was singularly toward God that, you know, from God alone will our help come in this situation. Not, not from, not from the government. Now God can use governments and He often has. I believe it wasn't, wasn't it with Nehemiah that an escort was given actually. But that's not, whether that's given or whether it's not, God will provide. And so now, Ezra's in new territory. He was basically, it seems, born in the captivity or just before the captivity.

He was a baby. But he's going to a place where he likely has never been or he didn't remember, I'm sure. I would, I would think. But he knows God. And he knows God is leading him there. And though he knows adversity will come and is coming and has come, he knows that if God intends it to be the case, He will carry him through. And how that applies to so many things in our lives. If God gives us wisdom, let us not lean back to our own understanding. Let us not lean on our own, our own devices, but trust Him, the God who puts the burden and gives the wisdom to our hearts to do something, to say something, to carry through with it. Because, you know, how else, even as it comes to our, as it pertains to our children or our brothers and sisters in Christ, the lost around us, the only way that we can truly know that we're loving one another as we ought to is if we're following God's wisdom, right? If we're following, what did John talk about it? He says, you know, by this we know that we love the brethren if we love God and keep His commandments, right?

And so, we certainly should speak the truth in love, but we need wisdom in what we say and how we say it, but then we need to say it. We need to do it and follow the Lord. And so, may we have the spirit of Ezra. May we have the spirit that Ezra had. God has given me this burden and He will make a way. I look to Him. I look to Him to provide. I do not look to the King. Thank God, if the King wants to give us an escort to keep us safe, that's up to the King, but I'm not going to ask Him for it. I'm going to look to the Lord and may God help us likewise to do that in our lives. Let's pray. Father, we need wisdom. We need to know Your wisdom and then we need to walk in wisdom. We need to walk in wisdom toward those that are without. We need to walk in wisdom and be guided in our words with wisdom toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need wisdom in many areas of our lives, on the job, or even maybe a change that's being made. We've come to a new chapter of our lives. I think about those that are coming to new chapters.

I think of Brother Andrew who's starting a new job this week. I think of Brother David who is seeking Your wisdom for the next chapter of his life. And so many, Lord. I think of sisters and brothers and Linda Valcarcel and Deborah Hamm, Lord, who is coming to a new chapter of her life, both of them with their husbands having passed. So many, Lord, that need Your direction for the next steps of life, the next chapter of life. Lord, may we not lean to our own understanding in those times, but in all our ways may we acknowledge Thee and trust that You will direct our paths. And Lord, if You be our helper, of whom shall we be afraid? The Lord is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid? Though a host rise up or encamp against me, yet will I not fear. May that be true in our lives even as we go this week. We pray now that You bless this final hymn as we sing together. May we meditate on the things we've seen, the good example we've seen in this brother Ezra tonight, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.